DIDACTICS OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE IN AFRICA

Abstract

The existing knowledge from the African tradition needs to be put together for the development of the continent. The over 2000 languages in the continent carry with them indigenous knowledge that has kept its speakers going over the centuries. The focus on the continent has been on the negative history, slave trade, colonisation, and neo-colonisation. It is time we lay emphasis on the vestiges of its glorious civilization. We need to salvage and revitalize it through mother tongue literacy. As far as indigenous knowledge is concerned, each language community has useful indigenous knowledge that has been handed over the ages. This is embedded in the language and culture. We need to write it the way it was handed down to us before looking for the translations into other languages. A translation from English, French and other languages into our mother-tongues will as well bring in external knowledge for the development of our communities. We therefore need more linguistics and applied linguistics research to bring out the orthographies and grammars of our mother-tongues to facilitate this process.  An educational system built on its languages and cultures which exploits them to give confidence and hope to its students is what this book proposes. Its products will be proud to be Africans and hence think Africa first, Cameroon first.  This system of education requires a bold volte-face; a return to our national languages as languages of instruction, especially in the rural areas. Provision should be given for African children especially at the basic level to learn how to read and write through their mother-tongues.  They should be able to discover the sciences, technologies, cultures, histories, ethics, and norms of their communities through their mother tongues.